If you have to have a Navy sight I can't help you. Nobody has them at the moment and the US ones won't fit your barrel. But as luck would have it there is a much, much cheaper (and in many ways better) solution.
The main downside to the Navy sight, assuming you like the sight picture, is that any time you pull the gas plug you might be affecting your sight alignment. This is not intolerable but it does get annoying and if your gun is a SHTF gun, that is not the best system. You will have to clean your gas system occasionally, and any time you do, you will affect yuour rifle's zero. Not bad for a paper puncher...not good otherwise.
There is also the minor annoyance of the shortened sight radius. It's a little less accurate to shoot with the front sight set further back like that. I never noticed this being a big problem, but it's there. What is really needed is a front sight out at the end of the barrel. Why not use the one you already have?
First of all, don't buy a flash hider. (Savings so far...40-50 bucks.)
Next, dont buy a Navy sight. (Savings total...maybe another 75-80 bucks even if you can find one. So we are in the $120 savings range now.)
So you chopped your barrel and got the usual 1/2" by 28tpi end on it...
Now whack that barrel stub out of your stock Norinco flash hider, and take it to a machine shop. Here is what you will ask for:
1. The splines must be bored out so the inside of the hider is smooth.
See right at the back there? No three splines sticking in anymore. Smoooooth.
2. The section immediately past where the barrel stops has to be bored out to 1/2"x28 threads per inch, just like the inside of AR flash hiders. See the threads?
3. You also need a 1/2" crush washer. In this pic you can see the section that you bore and thread, and that's a crush washer next to the flash hider. The gun smith I go to supplied me with mine.
4. On the bottom of the FH, have them put in a little set screw. This is just to lock the thing in place. I don't know if it's necessary or not, but my setup works. I have around 150 rounds through it. It was hard to get off for these pictures so it's not shaking loose.
I don't want to tell you how little this cost me in case the machinist was doing me a favour! But rest assured that this is not much work. It might cost you about what a flash hider would have cost. It might be less.
You now have an extremely simple, effective front sight and flash hider, and it cost you something like forty bucks! Installation is simple:
1. Screw it on.
2. If it doesn't line up perfectly straight up and down, rub the compression washer on a sharpening stone for a few seconds and try again. It doesn't take much grinding to change the front sight indexing.
That's it! I prefer this to the Navy sight, personally. It's cheaper, and faster, and you already have the parts, and it requires no maintainence.
The flash hider that's going on my folder is getting cut down to half length and since it's effectively crenellated, I'm going to sharpen up those points a little. Why? Because I want to be able to stab right through a zombie skull if necessary, and because I want every last bit of length cut off that I can.
This setup is about as long as a vortex, too, as the shoulder of the FH sits about an inch back on the barrel. My crenellated stabbing version will be shorter than a vortex.
And, of course, this frees you from having to buy a navy sight.
Enjoy!
The main downside to the Navy sight, assuming you like the sight picture, is that any time you pull the gas plug you might be affecting your sight alignment. This is not intolerable but it does get annoying and if your gun is a SHTF gun, that is not the best system. You will have to clean your gas system occasionally, and any time you do, you will affect yuour rifle's zero. Not bad for a paper puncher...not good otherwise.
There is also the minor annoyance of the shortened sight radius. It's a little less accurate to shoot with the front sight set further back like that. I never noticed this being a big problem, but it's there. What is really needed is a front sight out at the end of the barrel. Why not use the one you already have?
First of all, don't buy a flash hider. (Savings so far...40-50 bucks.)
Next, dont buy a Navy sight. (Savings total...maybe another 75-80 bucks even if you can find one. So we are in the $120 savings range now.)
So you chopped your barrel and got the usual 1/2" by 28tpi end on it...
Now whack that barrel stub out of your stock Norinco flash hider, and take it to a machine shop. Here is what you will ask for:
1. The splines must be bored out so the inside of the hider is smooth.
See right at the back there? No three splines sticking in anymore. Smoooooth.
2. The section immediately past where the barrel stops has to be bored out to 1/2"x28 threads per inch, just like the inside of AR flash hiders. See the threads?
3. You also need a 1/2" crush washer. In this pic you can see the section that you bore and thread, and that's a crush washer next to the flash hider. The gun smith I go to supplied me with mine.
4. On the bottom of the FH, have them put in a little set screw. This is just to lock the thing in place. I don't know if it's necessary or not, but my setup works. I have around 150 rounds through it. It was hard to get off for these pictures so it's not shaking loose.
I don't want to tell you how little this cost me in case the machinist was doing me a favour! But rest assured that this is not much work. It might cost you about what a flash hider would have cost. It might be less.
You now have an extremely simple, effective front sight and flash hider, and it cost you something like forty bucks! Installation is simple:
1. Screw it on.
2. If it doesn't line up perfectly straight up and down, rub the compression washer on a sharpening stone for a few seconds and try again. It doesn't take much grinding to change the front sight indexing.
That's it! I prefer this to the Navy sight, personally. It's cheaper, and faster, and you already have the parts, and it requires no maintainence.
The flash hider that's going on my folder is getting cut down to half length and since it's effectively crenellated, I'm going to sharpen up those points a little. Why? Because I want to be able to stab right through a zombie skull if necessary, and because I want every last bit of length cut off that I can.
This setup is about as long as a vortex, too, as the shoulder of the FH sits about an inch back on the barrel. My crenellated stabbing version will be shorter than a vortex.
And, of course, this frees you from having to buy a navy sight.
Enjoy!
